new built partnership Chase Freedom Flex categories Park Hyatt Vendome Redemption what's up guys Sebastian from ask sebie today we're looking at the updated Freedom categories a new partnership between built and Alaska and also bringing you into the field big favorite before diving is to give us a thumbs up to help with the algorithm let's start off the Chase Freedom flats this is probably the best quarter that we've seen in a bit for Q2 April to June you're getting 5% back which is actually 5x thank you points on up to, 1500 in spend for hotel stays in experiences restaurants and also Amazon reminder that this is per card so if you do have a lot of freedom flexes then this can be pretty good idemi also does wonder whether this is a response to the Wells Fargo card main reason being that this is the first time I think we've seen hotels as a rotating category even though there are a lot of options I'm probably sticking on on Amazon I ended up picking up a bunch of stuff for travel then yeah Amazon just 10 cents compared to the other ones for example this microphone let me know if you prefer this over the laugh mic so this is the microphone that I'm now holding it is a little big but I don't mind bringing it around if it sounds better A lot of people do have multiple Freedom Flex cards or Freedom cards by either product changing Freedom unlimited or downgrading Sapphire cards it should be a pretty fine cord in terms of value if you are someone that's under 524 then this is probably one of the best Evergreen cards to add into your lineup even if you do decide to move into other setups you probably will still keep using this card and again even if you have one these get another card like the freedom unlimited or Sapphire card to get a second one in the second year of that card moving over to DS they're once again zigging when everyone else is zagging they make a lot of announcements and they finally made one that I'm excited about you can turn your rents payments into Alaska miles there are two different things here one is going to be turning your bills points into Alaska miles at a 1:1 rate so 1,000 is 1,000 that's interesting because there's no other program right now that allows you to turn over to Los Cals other than maybe bonvoy but that's kind of a messy um and you lose a lot of points on the way doing that it is kind of surprising that Bank of America doesn't do this because they're the partner of Alaska even more interesting is the fact that you can use a personal Alaska card later in the year to pay rent through built and you earn 3x miles for every $1 up to 50K points and spend annually this means that even if you don't have a built card and you just used your platform with your Alaska card you can get a ton of value for most other cards when you do rents payments you're only getting one X bag or the base payment which might be two FS so in that sense it might make sense if you are hitting an intro bonus or some other Focus like a free night certificate for spending $115,000 this gives you a pretty good Evergreen option while the partnership stays around you're paying 3% to get 3x Alaska points and pretty much buying them at a 1 cent per Point rate if you live in a high cost of city like San Francisco or New York then you're probably looking at 3,300 for rent per month which is about 40,000 per year this turning the rents that you were already paying into about a114 ,000 Alaska miles you are paying about $1,100 for it but that's still pretty good value it depends on you but these are some of the hardest mouss to get lots of use cases but the one I like the most is going to be business and first class to Asia so business as 75,000 Mi and first as 110,000 Mi for distances of 5,000 Mi to 7,000 M for example San Francisco to Tokyo is about 10 1/2 hours and falls into this 5,000 to 7,000 range if we're getting points via this rents method you're pretty much paying $1,100 to fly Jal first class which feels like pretty great value and to be fair it obviously depends on what you're focused on you could also make this into two round trip economy flights so pretty much you and your player to which is also a great option another example is going to be SFO to Hong Kong which is 69,1 100 mi in in that same 5K to 7K range it might be even better value but availability is a bit tougher Cafe Pacific first class is definitely a Vibe and something while worth experiencing once in your life maybe it's because my family is from Hong Kong but I never thought I would fly Cafe first if anything that's one of the reasons why like points so much it's unlocking these experiences that felt like they were impossible or even if you do make that level of money it still feels a bit weird to spend $20 on a flight because that could be used elsewhere moving into a lightning round there's a pretty strong rumor that United is going to add mileage pooling this means that a group of friends or family can add a bunch of Point into one account and the pool leader can pick how those points are used if that sounds familiar it's because Aeroplan ETS have been similar a while back before they shut it off because of Fraud and also Point Brokers conceptually it makes a ton of sense usually within a friend group there's one person who is really into points while the other people like travel they don't mind earning the points but they don't really want a plan I think United will have to be super careful about points being stolen because that feels like a very obvious risk and also them kind of flagging accounts by accident and shutting things down when they shouldn't so pretty much false positives a bit different but American Airlines is now dealing with a bit of Fallout from shutting down accounts it's all gravy until something happens next up we have a bunch of transfer promotions so city has a 25% one for Life Mouse it's 1 to 1.25 so 1,000 to 1,250 The Sweet Spot for Life miles as 87,000 M for us to Europe and lift handza first class with no fuel search charge Chase is also offering 25% on flying blue Air France km here it's the same one to 1.25 best use cases to fly in blue PR motions and especially useful if you want to go to Paris for the summer or the Olympics speaking of Paris one of the best use of Chase or high at points is the park high at fandom this has to be one of the best redemptions if you want to be in the area retail prices are pretty aggressive to say the least and they can get very expensive zooming out a bit to a more fair price you are looking still at about 1,700 on average per night there is a way around this though if you have points so it is a category 8 Hyatt which starts at 35,000 points per night so if you're looking to the European section of this you're going to see France and then it's right in the middle of this group for category AIDS we're spending 35,000 for non- Peak 4,000 for standard and 45,000 for Peak 17 is still in that 1872 USD range so almost 1,00 which is pretty aggressive that also means that you're getting pretty good value for your points points at 35,000 points that's 5.3 Cent per point at 40,000 points 4.7 Cent per point and $45,000 points $4.2 per point and of course it can be more expensive depending on timing we normally post a travel stuff over on many rooms and also said be fun I believe Mandy is making her way from Japan to Paris starting next week in the meantime we are getting kind of breaking news by our correspondent who is currently at the Park Hyatt and we'll give you a quick room tour everyone it's Debbie from the field reporting live from the Park Hyatt vandom it is beautiful as you can tell great spring day pretty much in comfortable weather even though I am still wearing a sweater right now but you can get away with a t-shirt you can see a pretty nice Square over here this is empty throughout the day but busier at night this is also the first time we've been upgraded to one of the rooms of a balcony there's not that many it's awesome even though it's not a sweet one of the better rooms in the house so coming back over here you have a little seating area as well as some plants great way to enjoy coffee as well as some champagne and enjoy the afternoon there also are some other rooms that are going to have a similar balcony but a bit smaller for example right over here little dinkier but still pretty nice let's come inside over here here we have a desk area and the room is pretty simple but it works lots of mirrors and you see these guys throughout the room TV that is right over here that I kind of forgot existed until right now also plenty of macaroons which have been delicious